Member Profile - Kevin Hales
I was born 26 March 1946 in Maffra, in East Gippsland, Victoria, to parents George & Ivy.
I was the youngest of 3 children; two sisters 8 & 3 years old.
My parents were married in 1934 in the general region where we lived. My father was in a Road Construction business with his brother-in-law working on local government projects in this same general region. Dad was away from home Monday to Friday most weeks due to this work, while our mother held the ‘fort’ and ran our home.
I attended Primary School in Maffra until year 3 when we moved to Primary School in Bairnsdale 70 kms further East in Victoria. My Secondary School education was at Bairnsdale Technical School, then I commenced a Fitting & Turning Apprenticeship with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria at the Brown Coal Mining operation in The Latrobe Valley 150 kms East of Melbourne in 1962.
Alice & I met during this period when I was an apprentice; when we were both attending an Easter Youth Camp at a location called Lake Tyres, East in the Gippsland region.
Alice was studying for 3 years in Melbourne, to become a Home Economics Teacher during some of the years of our early friendship. Alice’s first appointment was at Traralgon High School in the Latrobe Valley, in Victoria
We were married in January 1967 at Yallourn Methodist Church, which was the area where Alice had grown up, after her family had Migrated to Australia from Holland in 1956.
We lived in Traralgon following our marriage.
By June 1967 we were living in the North West of W.A. at Tom Price, which was the very, very early ‘days’ of the development of the current Iron Ore industry as we know it today. Across the next 5 years our 3 children were all born in Tom Price and at the time our youngest was born, we moved 90 kms South to Paraburdoo where a new mine was being developed and we lived for the following 6 years. For the first 4 years I had worked in my trade field then moved into middle management positions across the following years. During our years in Paraburdoo, Alice was Home Economics Teacher at the District High School with our children progressively attending the Primary School.
In May 1978 we moved to Goulburn NSW, where I worked again in Middle Management at a new Copper, Lead & Zinc mining operation, which was located midway between Goulburn & Canberra. Alice was also employed at a Home Economics Teacher at a Goulburn Catholic Girls School. We built a home in the first year living in Goulburn and our 3 children attended one of the local Primary Schools, then on to one of the High Schools in town. (Goulburn population was 25,00 residents in those years.)
In early 1986 we moved to Adelaide where I was employed by a company sourcing and manufacturing mining equipment spare parts and Alice obtained a Home Economics Teaching position at a Catholic Girls school. Our son transferred his employment to a SA Bank Branch and our two girls attended Secondary School while we lived in the North Eastern suburbs of Adelaide.
THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF OUR STORY CONTINUES IN THE NEXT CLUB BULLETIN. -KEVIN H.
President Wendy Lippett
Secretary Greg Casson
Dunlop OAM, Retired Lieutenant Colonel, CFS Brigade Captain and co-Founder of Trojans Trek will be talking about the origin of Community Fire Tanks, their pivotal role in controlling wild fires and enormous impact on Greenhouse Gas.
guest speaker, Andrew MacMichael, from the South Coast SES, Who
